A quick tour of a ripe pu-erh tea factory in Pu'er, Yunnan. Learn how raw pu-erh is fermented in the 'wodui' process and becomes ripe pu-erh. Our Yunnan-based tea shop: www.farmer-leaf.com/ Instagram: / farmer.leaf
After reading that Shou fermentation was introduced not that long ago(by tea production margins), 1975-ish, I expected something more complicated and scientific. But it's just piling, wetting and turning. Reminds me of composting process. The tea is no less tasty after knowing that though:)
Man ill have a presentation abaout tea in context of my chemistry major. Your video helped me alot to understand the traditional way of producing tea. I appreciate tea so much on my own, hoping ill ever taste some tea that is produced as the ones u r showing. Thank you so much! keep it going ! :-)
thank you for the insights and showing all the steps of the production! how do the producers know that the microorganisms in the pile are the ones benificial to the fermentation process? are they always the same or does the variety of microorganisms vary from pile to pile? is it possible that the pile gets contaminated and therefore needs to be discarded?
How exactly the mycotoxin levels and contamination of hazardous fungi are controlled? The place does not look like a sterile laboratory to me. I love puer tea, but I am a bit concerned after I learned about mycotoxins and fungi in general. So please do tell, how some of the batches are not stuffed with aflatoxins? How is the health of the workers that work with piles?
Great video! What quality of leaf do they use to make ripe puerh? Considering all the labor involved maybe they have to use a cheaper material, no? Certainly not gushu. Thanks!
Cheaper tea is typically fermented, first because such tea doesn't taste good as raw Pu-erh unless it's aged, in this way, fermentation allows it to be marketed more quickly. Second, ripe pu-erh teas are usually sold for cheaper than Sheng Pu-erh, maybe because of a difference in market demand: those ready to pay for a high price want sheng pu-erh. Third, with good technique, cheap material can be turned into a good shu pu-erh. Fourth, it's risky to pile a ton of good gushu and have a so-so tea in the end. Therefore, the majority of the material used is cheap, either plantation or summer tea from natural and ancient tea gardens (which is way cheaper than spring material). Some high end productions do exists though.
First of all: Great video as always William :) - One thing I asked myself many times before about this topic is: What about the water? What I heard sofar is that in China you need to buy water if you plan to drink it because water which comes out of the pipe isn't safe for drinking most of the time. But what kind of water do they use for this process most of the time? Because I could imagine if they also use simple "out of the pipe water" this may not be the safest because the stuff actually could get into the leaf and stay there. Especially within this video I really was wondering that they spread out the leaves directly onto the concrete floor. Isn't it normally the case to put something underneath a thick plastic blanket or bamboo? Because I read within an article that within the mountains where the pu-erh forest are located they aren't even allowed to concrete their streets anymore because it would poison the soil and further the trees. So concrete isn't a safe material when it comes into contact with something living = food etc. So if those piles are wet and warm and spread out there for 60 days or more isn't the concrete underneath releasing some components into the leaf material? I am not a scientist but I could imagine that this could be the case. Especially if both elements are in constant contact with each other through heat and moisture.
Regarding the quality of water used, I guess they use tap water, maybe it is filtered in some factories. Tap water is deemed unfit for drinking in China as a safety precaution, but if you can shower and brush your teeth with it, it's not that toxic anyway. I would also assume that part of the microorganisms that grow during the fermentation come from that very tap water. I didn't mention it in the video, but the concrete gets coated with tannins along the years, this is why it is stained. The seasoned concrete actually contributes to a good quality product. I have always seen the fermenting tea in direct contact with the concrete, I think a plastic blanket would give a different result, concrete is slightly porous and probably allows some of the water to escape during the fermentation. With a plastic blanket, the water would accumulate at the bottom of the pile. Would such hygiene standards be acceptable in the USA? Probably not, but we're in Yunnan and this is what an average tea factory looks like!
Belive or not i make all thing at home from kilo of the maocha in the glass tank and got nice ripe in the end. So you can do even this if you tea nerd such as myself.
i think it can be interesting to do it at home with a shovel and a small cubic meter pile potentially you can turn it every 2 days with a spading fork but i guess its risky because you could lose 1 cubic meter if it doesnt go right
Ah, i thought the fermentation process involves inoculation of a bacterial "starter" but this video reveals that the fermentation just uses the bacteria from the air kind of like sourdough starter.
Thank you for making this informative video. A lot of ´experts´ claim that if you age pu-erh tea and you get white mold on it, this is not healthy and you have to throw the tea away. However during ripe pu-erh production apparantly you get the same white mold on the tea, as it shows in your video, so does this mean that this is a myth and that white mold is actually harmless?
I know I comment almost exactly 3 years after the release of the video but maybe I'll get the answer to my question. I want to ask about the pressed shu pu'erh cha - bing cha, zhuan cha, etc. On which step of production is it pressed into cakes? Is it during mentioned tan ling process? Or maybe after it?
After the fermentation, the loose leaves are shade-dried, then usually sorted into different grade. They can be pressed after this point, just like regular raw pu-erh mao cha. You might want to wait until the dui wei (fermentation taste) has toned down before pressing, as this process will be faster when the leaves are loose.
Hello William! Am not a fan of Ripe Puer-I prefer drinking young raw for that youthful,bright verve and storing some for future sessions. Am drinking an LBZ from 2009 that is just now coming into maturation. Cheers and Thanks for your videos. Joe
gomertube of course my opinion. Every ripe puer that i have tried-somewhere around twenty different ones have had a sort of funky and vinyl type taste that i cannot get past.Some are ever so slightly fishy but this will eventually go away. I am talking reputable branded teas here that are not really cheap-nor expensive either. To each their own-i'll stick to young gushu Puers.
@@ChristopherRoberts puerh is the best tea for me. Others taste too harsh and bitter or maybe too weak. When I first started drinking it decades back I thought it was a bit like twigs and earthy. I didn't know the process or that it was the same plant.
@@gomertube The best ripe puers I've tried so far have a deep, dark, sweetish flavor that reminds me of old wet wood, or resinous tree bark in a humid forest, some others are more earthy and remind me of leaf piles on a humid jungle floor. I've also had some that remind me of a savory mushroom taste, perhaps with a bit of ash. But all of them also tasted very sweet and smelled beautifully aromatic after a couple of rinses or infusions. There is very little bitterness. The body sensation is normally relaxing, with some of them improving the focus. You should definitely try out some, it's quite an experience that's very different from sheng puer but also very worthwhile.
The microorganisms die out during the drying process, but their spores are still in the tea, if you put them in a wet environment, they will grow again, this is true for any food, that's why it rots after a while. Tea roasting could kill off the microorganisms, but plenty of them are suspended in the air and will attach to the tea. Fungi spores are also very hard to kill, some can resist to boiling in pure sulfuric acid at 500 degree Celsius for two hours!
isn't drinking the product of this fermentation by bacteria and fungi dangerous? especially some moulds, such as a few aspergillus species, produce very carcinogenic toxins (such as aflatoxins)
Aflatoxins are present in many foods, there are acceptable limits (20 ug/kg in the US). There are a lot of papers available on google scholar that analyze the potential toxicity of pu-erh tea. A minority of the teas tested go over the limit defined in the USA and Europe. The limits in China are higher. Yet, these limits are not really relevant to tea because you will consume much less than other mycotoxin sensitive products such as peanuts, wheat or cooking oil. Aflatoxins are soluble in water, which means you should get rid of them if you discard the first brew.
Yes, alcohol is produced in fermentation, minimum amounts due to the low free sugar content of tea (as opposed to fruits). The alcohol then evaporate during the drying.
